Rare earth elements (REE) concentrations and pattern remains largely unchanged during the process of milling and can thus provide strong evidence of the origin of the material. The aim of this study was to determine the rare earth elements in uranium ore deposits as a nuclear forensics tool. Uranium ore from three mines were collected and analyzed using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to determine the concentrations of rare earth elements. A non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test and a pair wise comparison test was used to test for significant difference in the concentration of REEs between the mines followed by principal component analysis (PCA). The REE concentration were normalized with C1-Chondrite values to determine the REE pattern. The total concentration of the REE ranged from 131.38 to 161.77 ppb, 266.27 to 840.37 ppb, 177.86 to231.51 for Mine 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The mean ∑REE obtained was in the order M2>M3>M1. The pairwise comparison test of the pair M1 and M2 was found to be less than 0.05, indicating a significant difference in the samples. The REE pattern is mostly similar for all the ore samples with pronounce Eu anomaly, enriched LREE and depleted flat HREE. The PCA results indicates that the ore samples can be distinguished from each other.

稀土元素 (REE) 的浓度和模式在研磨过程中基本保持不变，因此可以提供材料来源的有力证据。本研究的目的是确定铀矿床中的稀土元素作为核取证工具。使用电感耦合等离子体质谱仪 (ICP-MS) 收集和分析来自三个矿山的铀矿石，以确定稀土元素的浓度。非参数 Kruskal-Wallis 检验和一对明智比较测试用于测试矿山之间稀土元素浓度的显着差异，然后进行主成分分析（PCA）。REE 浓度用 C1-球粒陨石值标准化以确定 REE 模式。矿 1、矿 2 和矿 3 的 REE 总浓度范围分别为 131.38 至 161.77 ppb、266.27 至 840.37 ppb、177.86 至 231.51。获得的平均 ∑REE 的顺序为 M2>M3>M1。发现M1和M2对的成对比较测试小于0.05，表明样品之间存在显着差异。所有矿石样品的 REE 模式大体相似，Eu 异常明显，LREE 富集，HREE 贫乏。PCA 结果表明矿石样品可以相互区分。